AZERBAIJANI OPPOSITION REGROUPS, ELCHIBEY SET TO RETURN.

Azerbaijan’s former president, Abulfaz Elchibey, was elected on April 30 to the post of chairman of the Democratic Congress, an alliance of seven opposition parties led by the Popular Front and the Musavat party. Participants at the conference indicated that Elchibey plans to return next month to Baku and to become active again in politics, as part of the opposition’s preparations for the upcoming municipal and presidential elections. Elchibey, who formally heads the Popular Front, has been living in internal exile in his native village in Nakhichevan since the 1993 collapse of his presidency and of the Popular Front government. First Vice-Chairman Ali Kerimov has led the Front in Elchibey’s absence. Last week the Popular Front held a leadership conference in Elchibey’s village under his chairmanship and discussed his return to Baku as a potential presidential candidate for the opposition alliance. (Turan, April 28, 30)

Key Abkhaz Offices Change Hands.